UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced her draft proscription order for Palestine Action, alongside two other groups.
“Three dangerous terrorist groups will be banned,” read the Tuesday announcement. In addition to Palestine Action, Cooper said the order would ban the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM).
As such, membership or support for any of the groups will become a criminal offense, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Palestine Action's co-founder on Friday asked a London court to pause the British government's decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, with her lawyers arguing the move was an "authoritarian abuse" of the law, Reuters reported.
First, however, Parliament must debate the draft order and choose whether to pass it. If approved, the orders will come into law this weekend, and the groups will create a new total of 84 organizations proscribed by the UK.
“Proscription is ideologically neutral,” said the UK Home Office. “By deciding to proscribe these three organizations, the government is demonstrating its zero tolerance approach to terrorism, regardless of its form or underlying ideology.”
The home secretary announced her intention to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23 after a long history of “aggressive and intimidatory attacks against businesses, institutions, and the public,” culminating in its break-in at a Royal Air Force base, which she said “crossed the thresholds established in the Terrorism Act 2000.”
“National security is the first duty of any government; we will always take the action needed to protect our democracy and national security against different threats,” said Cooper.
“Such acts do not represent legitimate acts of protest,” she added.
The home secretary assured the public that “should Parliament vote to proscribe, the right to peaceful protest will remain protected, as will the ability to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to oppose actions of the Israeli government.”
Other two proscribed groups
The other two groups were not mentioned on June 23.
The MMC is a white supremacist, neo-Nazi organization that is transnational and predominantly online, the Home Office said. It aims to encourage individuals to engage in acts of violence against those it perceives as “anti-social,” to further its causes.
Additionally, the MMC “supplies instructional material which provides information that can be used by an aspiring attacker to increase their capability or motivation to conduct a terrorist attack posing a threat to the UK.”
RIM is a white supremacist, ethno-nationalist organization that seeks to create a new Russian Imperial State. “Via its paramilitary unit, the Russian Imperial Legion, RIM has fought alongside Russian forces in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, directly advancing its own ideological causes,” said the Home Office.
RIM allegedly manages a paramilitary training program called Partizan. In 2016, two Swedish nationals attended Partizan before committing a series of bombings in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action has not come without controversy.
The group itself initiated legal proceedings on Monday to challenge the British government’s intention to ban it.
Palestine Action previously condemned the government’s move, calling it “an unhinged reaction,” and said that London’s High Court had granted the group an urgent hearing on Friday to consider permission for a legal challenge to the proscription.
It includes written statements from human rights experts at Amnesty International and others that have expressed concerns “about the unlawful misuse of anti-terror measures to criminalize dissent.”
On Wednesday, the UN called the British government’s impending designation of Palestine Action as a terror organization “unjustified labeling” and urged it to reconsider a ban.
“We are concerned at the unjustified labeling of a political protest movement as ‘terrorist,’” a statement from UN experts said.
“According to international standards, acts of protest that damage property, but are not intended to kill or injure people, should not be treated as terrorism.”